Many businesses, such as credit card companies, receive frequent requests for information of a type which requires a person""s response to certain questions. The ability to provide this service via a telephone, the internet, or other various means is highly desirous. As the information requested becomes more complicated and the cost of person call handling greater, it is important to facilitate data input and enterprise wide data sharing of all data, including data newly created at and during the time of a call before the call is sent to persons. While fully automated self-service is often a goal, the complexity of many service offerings and the patience and skill of customers in providing self-service, typically result in many calls being unable to be fully automated. Therefore, when a call that begins as an automated call is routed to a person, it offers a great benefit if all data already provided by the caller is instantly also available to the person. By eliminating the need to repeat or re-enter data, including data provided just a few moments ago as well as the results of any manipulations of this data separately or in combination with other data such as real-time credit scoring or credit offer construction, the call is shorter and less costly and the caller is provided superior service. Also, the request can be routed more appropriately to a qualified person, by being able to access all data entered by the caller.
Ideally, the goal is to facilitate the response by minimizing the amount of data that must be re-created or created after the request is submitted, shorten the time required to process the response after it is received, and/or to fully automate the response to the request. It is advantageous, therefore, to have a system that recognizes the caller, and/or which creates a database of information about the caller and purpose of the call built from responses to questions provided by the caller during the current access (and, optionally, past accesses) to the system, prior as well as subsequent to the routing of the call to a person. Each time the caller uses the system, additional, relevant information may be stored and outdated information may be updated within the database. All of the information from the database, as well as the information gained from the responses of the caller during the current use of the system, may then be made available to postulate a resolution. Such a system, which preserves and makes immediately available to persons and enterprise processes all information newly created during the current call session, will save considerable time in responding to a caller, and may allow for responses to more complex requests.
The present invention satisfies the need for such a response system. When a person requests information from a business, for example, over the telephone, the call may be answered by an ACD (automatic call distributor) and transferred to an IVR (interactive voice response unit, also sometimes referred to as an ARU -automated response unit, or VRU- voice response unit). The IVR may be programmed to ask the caller questions and processes the caller""s responses, until the caller answers all questions, abandons the call, or requests to speak to a person. The caller may respond to the questions by one of several methods. For example, responses may be entered by speaking in which case the IVR records the caller responses or has a speech recognition capability for determining the caller""s responses, or by receiving touch tones from the caller responding by pushing buttons on the telephone touchpad. All information provided by the caller is captured and transformed preferably electronically (but may also be by manual entry via a computer keyboard into a computer system), from the initial input signal to a form that is usable in responding to the request. The information entered by the caller may be used for retrieving additional information from a preexisting database, constructed during the caller""s past use of the system and/or constructed from prior data entry from other means, such as a live operator""s manual entry of data.
Once the caller answers some or all of the questions, the request may be transferred to a person or a computer, either of which is able to access and use all of the information entered by the caller and retrieved from the database in order to formulate a response. If the caller terminates use of the system, the caller responses already entered may be retained in the database for future use. If it is required that the request be transferred to a second, or additional person or computer, or back and forth between persons and computers, the information entered by the caller and retrieved from the database will be accessible and usable in responding.
The system of the present invention is not limited to requests made by telephone. Requests may be submitted by sound, speech, electronic text, email, fax, internet, or any input from a human, machine, telephone, or computer that is processed by making use of a voice or data network or a device embedded in or attached to a network. As such, a caller may also respond to questions posed by the system in ways not involving the telephone. For example, a caller may make an entry into a computer-based application, or utilize another type of signaling device such as a tone generator.
The system of the present invention eliminates the redundant entering of information each time a caller accesses the system or moves from point to point in the system. By recognizing the caller, and retrieving relevant information, including, for example, any and all responses entered via the IVR, even those responses entered during prior calls abandoned by the caller, (that may be in, a preexisting database), a minimum amount of new information is required from the caller before a response can be generated. Thus, an accurate response can be provided to a caller in much less time. Additionally, because a significant amount of information about a caller may be maintained in a database, the system may also include the ability to process requests that require conclusions about the caller. For example, the system may further include the ability to obtain information from outside sources such as various credit bureaus, and to use this information in conjunction with the information retrieved from the database to perform the calculations necessary for the approval or denial of loans or credit card applications or dynamically created terms of an offer. The system in this manner becomes a vehicle for negotiations of transactions. Instead of merely accomplishing static data collection from caller responses, the present invention provides a system for dynamic negotiations to conclude a transaction while the system is live with the caller. By creating a packet of information in a computerized record, the caller""s information entered during the call, collected from a database during the call, or collected from an outside source during the call) can travel with the call and be immediately accessible to all users of the system to respond to the caller""s request.